PLYMOUTH AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: Meet Mark Carey

Mark Carey, the new executive director of the Plymouth Area Chamber of Commerce, has worn a lot of hats.

Emily Clark eclark@wickedlocal.com @emilyOCM

PLYMOUTH – Mark Carey, the new executive director of the Plymouth Area Chamber of Commerce, has worn a lot of hats.

He worked as a broadcast media journalist for 15 years, as an operations manager and a production director, producing talk shows for former Boston Mayor Ray Flynn, Jerry Williams, “Boston Herald” journalist Michelle McPhee and Jeanine Graf, to name but a few.

His gig working with Flynn took him around the globe.

He interviewed Nelson Mandela in South Africa five years after Apartheid, and flew to South America, Ireland and Eastern Europe on various assignments. He booked guests, wrote scripts, did PR for the shows and their hosts, and formulated creative ideas for every hour-long segment.

He worked with Howie Carr and interviewed just about every presidential candidate you can imagine while covering the New Hampshire primaries. He also delivered the daily financial news, reporting on Wall Street’s ups and downs.

Chat with Carey and you can’t miss the rich radio voice. He is a master of accents and draws easy laughs when he demonstrates that skill, lapsing into the hyper-sales tone you hear in car advertisements and promoting MMA fighting events.

Carey has also done voice-over work for years, and he’s also a musician, known in the Boston area for fronting the seven-piece band Dick n Jane, singing lead and also playing keyboard and guitar.

Carey attended UMass Boston and the former Northeast School of Communication and began his career as a singing waiter in his hometown of Quincy, working side-by-side with other talents who rose to Broadway fame as singers or composers. That, he said, is where he learned about people – how to deal with customers and how to interact with others.

Carey was also a partner in a booking agency and in a restaurant – Quincy’s Cottage Tavern, which later became the Southside Tavern.

He left radio about seven years ago, he said, when he was hired as the executive director of Discover Quincy, the city’s tourism office.

David McCullough’s Pulitzer Prize-winning biography “John Adams” had ignited interest in Quincy and suddenly a flood of producers wanted to shoot movies there. Tourism spiked, and Carey formulated an idea. Why couldn’t he join forces with Quincy 2000, the city’s economic development office run by Plymouth resident Dean Rizzo?

It was a winning combination.

Carey and Rizzo created the Quincy Chamber of Commerce, rolling together the functions of their separate organizations. Carey then created the Quincy Film Bureau with the aim of encouraging Hollywood filmmakers to shoot in Quincy, to help boost the economy. He checked with Nicholas Paleologos, who was the Massachusetts Film Office executive director at the time, to make sure he wasn’t stepping on any toes, and was delighted with the response. Paleologos told him he wished every town in the state would create a film office, and Carey had the green light.

Carey went to work with town officials and others to streamline the permitting process so filmmakers had an easier time dealing with the red tape. The process became so easy, filmmakers often camped in Quincy, even if they wanted to shoot scenes on the Cape.

“Every movie that came to Massachusetts came to Quincy first,” Carey said. “When they find a city or town to help them with what they need, they want to work there.”

The partnerships injected $1 million into Quincy’s economy from 2008 to 2012.

Then there was the Quincy Restaurant League that Carey and Rizzo started, along with the “Taste of Quincy” campaign. The buzz was generated through discounts, events and great food, and it created lines outside the doorways of local eateries.

In addition to all these efforts, Carey also owned his own company, Carey Communications, for two years and shoots documentaries, music videos and other films. His music video “Boston You’re My Home” is a top YouTube draw and encourages donations to The One Fund Boston, which supports Boston Marathon bombing survivors.

Carey’s diverse background will likely be needed in his new post as Plymouth Area Chamber of Commerce’s executive director.

He said he is absolutely delighted with the new position and couldn’t say enough about the Chamber’s fabulous support staff.

“I’ve always walked into an office where I’ve had to start it myself. I walk in here and am so blessed to have such a sharp staff,” Carey said. “I’m coming to such an established, vibrant chamber. There’s just a lot to take in with this staff; they’re doing such an amazing job.”

Carey, who lives in Quincy, said the qualities he values most are humility and common sense. He raved about his 18-year-old daughter, Julianne Carey, who is planning to be a nurse.

“I do believe humility breeds sincerity – just being kind is so important,” he added.

He’s excited to do everything in his power to support the business community of the Greater Plymouth area and to build consensus around projects that will boost the local economy, he said, using his creative initiative, as he has done in the past.

He laughed as he noted that Rizzo, who lives in Plymouth, commutes to Quincy where he continues to work as executive director of the Quincy Chamber of Commerce, while he, Carey, commutes from his home in Quincy to Plymouth to lead the Plymouth Area Chamber of Commerce.